Regional conference on infectious diseases ends

Health experts and government officials have ended a two-day regional conference on infectious diseases in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "This was a conference dedicated to the integrated surveillance of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and STDs [sexually transmitted diseases]," Kristina Pigenko, an administrative assistant at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Tashkent, told IRIN on Thursday. The conference offered training in current international techniques of disease surveillance, while also presenting new epidemiological information on AIDS, hepatitis and STDs in the Central Asian Region (CAR). Sponsored by the US government and organised by CDC in conjunction with the US Agency for International Development, the conference, entitled "Integrated Surveillance for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs Control and Prevention in the Central Asia Region)", drew some 400 participants. According to CDC, HIV/AIDS and STDs are fast becoming a threat to health and economic development in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, with hepatitis B and C remaining significant causes of acute and chronic disease and mortality. The CAR is considered hyper-endemic for viral hepatitis. Despite the risks, however, country responses to the epidemics have been limited by economic and technical factors. Currently, surveillance for HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and STDs is carried out through separate systems - one of the many issues addressed by the conference, particularly the financial and technical benefits of integrating these different systems. More than 200 medical epidemiologists and specialists in HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and STDs, 150 specialists from the CAR and representatives from Russia, Western Europe, Canada and the USA, participated in the meeting, which opened on Tuesday. The conference provided an opportunity to share information obtained in the CAR and other parts of the world on ways of strengthening public health surveillance, and developing and implementing prevention and control strategies. Cross-cutting discussions with working groups at the conference allowed for exchanges of ideas about the next steps needed towards establishing an integrated surveillance system in the CAR.